Tabasco has approved a new Law on Aquaculture and Fisheries after receiving the green light from Congress on Monday (Dec 12).

This rule will sustain the development of the economic and productive activities of the fisheries-aquaculture sector and will offer legal viability to the industry.

Furthermore, it will encourage the rational use of the resources, research and fundraising. It also creates the State Fisheries and Aquaculture Information System and the State Register of Fishing and Aquaculture.

The Act aims to exploit natural resources in a rational and sustainable way and to reduce the factors that contribute to environmental degradation through assessment strategies, the monitoring and control of programmes and the systematisation of public activities, equipment verification and inspection, Milenio.com reported.

The new rules, composed of 105 articles, also include setting guidelines and policies for the promotion and development of the sector.

In addition, the Act orders the accreditation of the legal origin of fisheries or aquaculture resources, the creation of the State Fisheries and Aquaculture Information System and the State Register in the field, the promotion of the organization in the sector and strengthening the powers of the Secretariat of Agricultural, forestry and Fisheries Development (Sedafop) and those of the municipalities.

According to Deputy Pascual Bellizzi Rosique, president of the Committee on Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Issues, which issued the Law, Tabasco ranks eighth nationally as to fishing and first as to oyster production.

The legislator said that Tabasco has 183 kilometres of shoreline and 29,800 hectares of marshes and lagoons, and owns 28% of Mexico's water resources, the newspaper El Heraldo reported.